Blackford ...like a geography teacher outlining rules for a class trip to Pittenweem
OF course, ideas are important but the most successful politicians do not get ahead on intellect alone. They must also be in possession of that difficult-to-define quality, charisma. A politician who lacks charm and presence will never truly be considered a great statesman.
Which brings me to Ian Blackford, the SNP’s Westminster leader, whose speech at his party’s conference in Aberdeen yesterday was delivered with all the brio of a geography teacher outlining the ground rules for a class trip to Pittenweem.
If you like your politicians dull and uninspiring, Mr Blackford is the man for you. Like a Toby Jug brought to life in some terrible experiment, he moves awkwardly and wears an expression that seem to suggest he’s not entirely sure what’s going on. His rhetorical style may best be described as monotone with occasional flashes of rage which quickly wilt.
But if Mr Blackford lacks the personality to be considered a ‘big beast’ of politics, perhaps he has the intellectual thrust to compensate?
I am afraid, judging by his address to delegates – many of whom had the good grace not to fall asleep – he does not. He delivered a series of cliched bromides, avoiding troublesome details or, in some instances, even facts. For example, he said: ‘Friends, we won a landslide at last year’s Holyrood election. Together, we secured an independence majority.’
EVEN in politics, where hyperbole is par for the course, securing fewer than half the seats in a parliament is not generally described as a ‘landslide’. And as for Mr Blackford and his friends securing an independence majority, it is, I think, necessary to point out that the SNP was forced to bring its fellow nationalists in the Scottish Greens into government in order to create a working majority.
Delivered a barrel brimful of fish by the UK Government, Mr Blackford began firing wildly. Prime Minister Liz Truss and Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng (or Kwartang, as he insisted on pronouncing it) had, in only a matter of weeks, wrought chaos in the economy. Perhaps there
was a splinter of jealousy buried in the Blackford heart, here. After all, the Scottish public, by voting No in the 2014 independence referendum, denied the SNP the opportunity to create a multi-billion-pound black hole in the Scottish economy. How dare those Tories cause chaos! That’s the SNP’s job.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has promised a paper answering questions on economic matters of crucial importance to voters will be published in the coming weeks. It must surely have been a huge disappointment to Mr Blackford that this document was not ready in time for conference so he could have explained why the financial chaos that independence would cause would, in fact, be a very good thing.
Quel dommage, Rodney, that Mr Blackford was denied the opportunity to outline the benefits of the eye-watering tax rises and savage cuts to public services that would be required to balance the books in a Scotland ‘free’ from evil Westminster.
Something else was missing from Mr Blackford’s speech. Miss Sturgeon has promised SNP members she intends to hold a second independence vote next October and that if, as expected, the
Supreme Court rules she has no authority to do so, she will treat the next General Election as a ‘de facto’ referendum.
One might have expected the party’s leader at Westminster to have news on this plan for SNP members. In fact, Mr Blackford didn’t utter the R-word once.
It’s almost as if those at the top of the SNP have been taking their supporters for fools.